An Event that Taught Me Something

This is another in the series of personal narratives I am writing during Writing Workshop time at school. Hopefully by modeling the behaviors of a writer and showing how work can be published and shared with others, I can eliminate some of the hatred for writing that my students have. Please feel free to follow and comment!

Everybody has moments of glory when they are able to defy the odds and bring home a victory, whether figuratively or literally. This is not one of those stories. Rather, this is a story in which pitiful predictions gave way to overconfident delusions. It turns out that no victory, or loss, is certain until the very end. 

When I was int he fourth grade at St. Anthony's Catholic School, I won our class spelling bee. I don't remember a thing about this part of the road to spelling glory, or lack thereof, but I do know that it sent me to the school-wide round, where I would be up against... middle schoolers. I was horrified. Nonetheless, I brought home my little Scripps study guide and we practiced quite a bit, although I didn't think I stood a chance against those eighth graders. My spelling skills were good, but certainly not good enough to beat teenagers.

When teh day came, we lined up in the church (our version of a multi-purpose room) and the entire student body filed in to fill the pews and stare at us. While I'm sure no one was actually interested in the spelling prowess of their peers, but they were happy to get out of their regular classroom routine for a few minutes. There were quite a few watchful parents in attendance, my own included. I was afraid they'd wasted their time, but they could get a picture of me at the microphone once and then go about their day.

My memories of the beginning of the bee are a blur, but I remember the feeling when I realized that each time I went to the microphone, there were fewer and fewer people sitting behind me. It turns out that I was doing okay--well, even. Suddenly, there were two of us left--a middle schooler and me! I let myself start to get a little excited. Then, Stacy missed a word: windowpane. As she said "-pain" I knew I had a shot at winning. After the bell, I walked up to the microphone and spelled the word correctly. Holy cow, one more word and I would win! I suddenly knew that I would be able to do it.

I felt a surge of confidence as the announcer reminded everyone that if I spelled this next word correctly, I would win. I was so confident and wrapped up in that triumphant feeling that when the word caller said something I didn't understand, I was truly shocked. So shocked that I forgot I could ask for the word to be repeated, used in a sentence, or defined. I opened my mouth, and an all but arbitrary string of letters came out. The bell rang, I sat down, and Stacy won. I was completely flabbergasted. The victory was practically handed to me and I lost it.

So I came in second. Second in a school-wide spelling bee for Kindergartners through eighth graders. Overall, not bad for a ten-year-old. I did get to take home a red trophy with a bee wearing a graduation cap. How many fourth graders can say that? In the end, I walked away with a second-place trophy and this lesson: if you don't understand something, for goodness sake... ask!